19 FebSEO

Mastering SEO for Nonprofits to Increase Organic Visibility

Search engine optimization (SEO) is an excellent channel for nonprofit organizations to pursue if they want to improve their overall impact on the cause they’re serving. Since donations and fundraising efforts sustain nonprofits, it’s important to have an SEO program that consistently builds brand awareness so people in the nonprofit’s target audience can get involved. Organic brand awareness will lead to more donations and people donating their time to volunteer if the nonprofit group has a volunteer program.

The needs of nonprofit organizations differ from those of for-profit organizations, so some of the SEO strategies and tactics we’ll review here are unique to nonprofits. That being said, nonprofits also need to cover the basics of SEO like other types of organizations need to. In this guide, we’ll review what tools to use, how to approach content marketing, off-site SEO, foundational tech elements, and strategies for global and local groups.

Utilizing SEO Tools for Nonprofits

If you’re on a tight budget, there are some free SEO tools that you can use to help you. Some free tools include:

• Ubersuggest: Free keyword research tool to help guide your on-page SEO and content marketing efforts. You can also use it to conduct site audits.
• Google Analytics: Google Analytics is a free resource that will give you invaluable insights into how many people are coming to your site, engagement metrics, conversion metrics, and more.
• Google Search Console: Another mandatory free resource if you want to be serious about SEO. Search Console is your interface with Google, where you can submit your sitemap, monitor technical health, and get information on query clicks, impressions, click-through rates, and query rankings.

In an ideal situation, there is an ample budget for SEO, and you’re able to invest in some paid SEO tools; if so, consider the following:

• SEMrush: Keyword research, keyword position tracking, competitor analysis, backlink analytics, content writing assistance, and site audits.
• Ahrefs: Backlink monitoring, backlink analysis, link intersect analysis, keyword research, keyword position tracking, competitor analysis, site audits.
• Screaming Frog: Running in-depth crawl to address any technical issues.

SEMrush and ahrefs essentially do the same thing, but some aspects of each are better than the other. For example, ahrefs crawler and database for off-site SEO metrics is more robust than SEMrush’s. But SEMrush’s content research and planning tools provide more value than ahrefs. Go for both if you have the budget.

The primary goal of tools is to conduct research to inform your SEO strategy, monitor the technical health of your website, and monitor analytics so you can continue to iterate and improve your SEO marketing efforts.

Crafting High-Quality, Relevant Content

Now that you have the necessary tools, you can start creating your SEO strategy. The backbone of a good SEO strategy is content marketing. The overall mission and objectives should inform the content efforts of your nonprofit organization. Once you have a clear idea of your high-level objectives, then from there, you can start doing keyword research to identify some potential categories of topics that you can write about.

Referencing competitor’s content marketing efforts can be a great source of inspiration. You can use SEMrush or ahrefs to check and see what keywords they’re ranking for and identify which ones you want to rank for.

It’s important to establish topical authority with your content marketing. Establishing topical authority means that you’ve covered a topic in-depth and utilized people with experience and expertise to write the content. You can cover a topic in depth by creating pillar content hub pages, then long-tail keyword spoke pieces associated with the hub page. For example, let’s say your nonprofit focuses on helping raise money for blood cancer research. A potential topic you would want to focus on could be Leukemia. You would create an in-depth piece of content on Leukemia (content pillar hub page), and then you would internal link from there to content targeting long-tail keywords associated with Leukemia, treatment for Leukemia, Leukemia signs and symptoms, Leukemia diagnosis, etc. These spoke pages would link back to Leukemia’s content pillar hub page.

In addition to this, having a medical doctor or someone with some specialized credentials and knowledge related to blood cancer would help establish topical authority on the subject of Leukemia. The organization would then want to do this for every type of blood cancer. This would lead to more websites referencing the organization’s content and sending them backlinks.

The nonprofit organization will want to stay consistent with the quality, publishing frequency, and overall mission in their content marketing efforts.

Additionally, creating content for various mediums is useful if the resources are available. Written blog content should be the backbone of a content marketing strategy, but having unique infographics and videos will make the audience more likely to engage with the content. Mediums like videos and infographics are also great assets for social media marketing, which in turn helps gain more backlinks and build brand awareness, which is great for SEO.

Technical SEO for Enhanced Site Performance

Although a bit more dry than an engaging content marketing strategy, technical SEO is important if a nonprofit organization is serious about SEO. Technical SEO ensures your website can be crawled, indexed, rendered, and ranked by search engines in the most efficient manner possible. It also ensures the site has a great visitor user experience.

Technical SEO health can be monitored using Screaming Frog or SEMrush. It’s necessary to run website crawl site audits using one of these tools to identify any issues that may impede SEO success. Often, these crawls can be scheduled to run on a weekly or monthly cadence. Some technical issues to consider for SEO include:

• Optimized URL structure
• Fast site speed
• Internal linking optimization
• Mobile-friendliness
• ALT text for images and ADA compliance
• Site Security
• Simplified navigation for user and search engine accessibility
• Optimized meta tags and headings
• Hreflang for international organizations
• JavaScript rendering

There is a lot of nuance with technical SEO. Some issues might be able to sit for a while before they’re addressed, but there could be some that need to be taken care of right away. It’s best to have an internal SEO or hire a consultant or SEO agency to help you navigate the intricacies of technical optimization.

Effective Off-Site SEO Strategies for Nonprofits

Off-site SEO is concerned with any SEO ranking factors that are not on your actual website. The main focus is on backlinks when another website links to yours. Search engines view backlinks as votes of authority and trust, meaning they are more likely to give you organic visibility because your content is useful. Backlink-building strategies are built on the backbone of a great content marketing strategy. If you adhere to the content marketing guidelines described above, you can get backlinks from high-authority sites. The focus should be on the quality of the sites you receive backlinks from, not quantity. 

Nonprofit organizations can leverage partnerships they may already have to help build backlinks. Backlink building also provides the opportunity to establish new partnerships that could benefit the organization in more ways than just getting some backlinks. A new partnership can also be a great opportunity to do a PR campaign, which is an excellent endeavor for building brand awareness.

Another important element of off-site SEO is social media marketing. Focus on the social media platforms that are relevant to your audience. You want to encourage sharing and engagement to boost your presence on these platforms. Posting mission-relevant content consistently and interacting in the comments section is the best way to get people to share and engage with your posts. This will inevitably lead to more visitors to your website. Establishing relationships with those visitors on social media will make them more likely to get involved with your organization’s cause.

Conclusion

Developing an SEO strategy for your nonprofit organization can be a complex endeavor. It requires research, planning, proper execution, maintenance, and consistency. It will involve stakeholders across many departments, so it will be imperative to have well-designed project management and internal communications processes. Once the SEO operations become a well-oiled machine, they will be an integral part of expanding the reach of your nonprofit’s mission, helping propagate the cause the organization serves.